Making Online Payments

To do business online, you need a credit card. This is very important as the credit card is an international recognized way of guaranteeing that the seller will get paid for products and services delivered to you. If you are worried about using a credit card online, there are secure ways of shopping online. One way is to sign up for a free PayPal account. PayPal is an international recognized online payment system that is safe way for making and receiving online payments. At present South Africans cannot receive payments through PayPal due to governments regulations but it is still a safe way of making payments. PayPal acts as a financial intermediary, so that a third party will never have directl access to your credit card details.

Affiliate Marketing

One of the best ways to make money online is affiliate marketing. Through affiliate marketing you are paid for helping to market the products and services of other businesses. First you need to register with such a company. Then place affiliate text links or banners on your website. When people click on the links or banners you are paid in accordance with a predefined fee structure. There are numerous affiliate marketing programs available in South Africa, but it is best to sign up at an affiliate network. You are not limited to marketing of South African products only, since the beauty of the online business is that you can market international products too.

South Africa has very few big affiliate networks. The top three networks are: Trafficsynergy, OfferForge and EarningsOnline. At this stage OfferForge is the largest affiliate network in South Africa, but Trafficsynergy is fast catching up. Well known businesses like Outsurance, Liberty Life, Musica and many others make use of the services of affiliate networks. When you sign up for a affiliate network account and your application is approved, you can market the products and services of more than one businesses through one account.

There are additional benefits for using an affiliate network. You can use a single username and password to access your affiliate account and it is easier to access your statistics for all the campaigns you are promoting. Also, many well known businesses like Outsurance only offer membership to their affiliate programs through affiliate networks.

Another common way of making money online is to sign up for Google AdSense. Google will display ads that are relevant to the content of your website and when visitors click on any of the AdSense links you will be paid per click. Just paste the relevant code provided by Google onto your website. These links will be updated frequently without any further action from your side. Just beware that Google has a reputation of terminating your account if their algorithms find any suspicious activity on it, such as too many clicks coming from one particular IP address.

Auction Sites

A second way of making money online is to sell products and services through an auction site. Bidorbuy is the largest online auction site in South Africa. You can buy and sell almost anything at their site, even without a website. For security reasons, you will need a credit card to sign up.

Getting a Website

You will need a website for using Google AdSense. You can either design and maintain your own website or find a business to set it up for you for a fee that can vary from a few bucks to a few thousand bucks. Should you decide to do it yourself, you need to sign up for a hosting account at one of the many website hosting companies in South Africa and abroad, depending on the type of site you want. We recommend one of the following: Afrihost, IX Webhosting, Hostingmetro, or ImHosted.com.

Next, get yourself software to create and publish web pages. There are many programs that can do this, but Microsoft’s FrontPage program is better if you are new to the trade. Some web hosting companies also offer an easy to use website builder that is template driven and does not require any knowledge of webdesign.

Getting a Domain name

Each website needs a name, referred to as the domain name. Most international domains are ending in dotcom (.com) while South African names typically end in dotcoza (.co.za). Choosing the right domain name is vitally important.

Getting help

There are many other considerations to take into account when starting a new website in terms of content, search engine optimization (SEO) and submission of your new website.

Their economy is a mixed one, with a high rate or poverty and a low GDP per capita. According to the UN, South Africa is a middle-income country that has an abundant supply of resources, well-developed financial, energy, legal, communications and transport sectors. Their stock exchange is ranked amongst the world’s top twenty and their modern infrastructure supports an efficient distribution of goods to the major urban centres around the whole region.

Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria/Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth see the majority of advanced development throughout the region. Beyond these four centres of economic activity development is subsidiary. There is also still much poverty despite the government’s efforts to eradicate this. The majority of South Africans are quite poor however recently a few key marginal areas have experienced some rapid growth in terms of their respective economies.

These areas include Mossel Bay to Plettenburg Bay, the Rustenburg area as well as both the Bloemfontein and Nelspruit areas. The Cape West Coast and the Kwa-Zulu Natal North Coast have also seen such growth.

Despite the high unemployment rates and the effects of Apartheid on black workers’ earning less than white workers from 2004 economic growth picked up quite significantly. After the affirmative action policies were put into place there has been a significant rise in black businesses and economic wealth.

Due to South Africa’s being a popular tourist destination a substantial amount of revenue is raked in due to tourism. With the scenic coastal lines, the vast vineyards and the dense game reserves, the tourism industry in South Africa is booming, with all kinds of travel, accommodation and food businesses doing well. It is these South African tourism businesses that rely quite heavily on travel seasons for a large portion of their revenue.

South Africa also boasts developing agriculture, manufacturing and construction industries and has good export relations with Germany, the US, Japan, China, Spain and the UK. These, as well as a number of other African countries.

With the 2010 World Cup being hosted in South Africa recently the tourism industry, already thriving, saw an exponential boost in the past few months. Expectations are the ripple effects of the large numbers of foreigners having had a memorable time in South Africa during the World Cup will be positive and long-lasting.

Even though, many cities and towns constitute S.A, advanced development is significant in four major areas only which are: Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban. Unfortunately, the other parts of the country aside from these four major areas manifest poverty and poor development. However, some of these areas are recently showing growth in economic development.

Unlike highly industrialized countries, development in third world countries is rather slow. Despite this reality, South Africa utilizes its resources and skills in establishing global trading. The three major exports for which the country is famous for are diamonds, gold, and platinum.

These three major products are exported into the United States, Japan, United Kingdom, China, and Italy. All these other countries rely mainly on the country for the supply of these goods. The country was able to export $7.5 million worth of products and merchandise to the United States alone in 2006. Over the years, the amount of S.A’s export significantly increased, thus improving the economy of this country.

The United States has established trading with South Africa which is manifested in the export-import commitment that these two countries have entered upon. In fact, the United States is exporting an exuberant amount of merchandise to the country as well. The top three major imports of the country from the United States include chemicals, machinery, and petroleum products. Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Saudi Arabia import some goods to South Africa as well. These countries import energy, capital goods, food, and fuel to S.A.

Aside from chemicals, machinery, and petroleum, the United States also import telecommunications equipment, new and used passenger cars, materials handling equipment, trucks, buses, special purpose vehicles, civilian aircrafts, and industrial machines.

Based from the amount of these imported goods, fuel seems to be taking the top priority. South Africa imports not only petroleum, but coal as well. This only shows that there is a great need for fuel in the country. Food products such as corn, oats, barley, and sorghum are some of the fastest growing imports too.

The import and export activities of South Africa are well guided by the Foreign Trade Organization which establishes guidelines and requirements for export and import activities. Duties, taxes, and import surcharges are imposed by the organization for the protection of the
trading ventures of South Africa.

South Africa has undergone massive growth since the early 1990′s and there is much hope for the future of export and import as the potential is endless. South Africa has a great history of successful exports or imports and an attractive attitude towards paying on time. An advantage of importing from South African is that they are linked to the rest of Africa through the Southern African Customs Union which is made up of South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland and Namibia. Of the 15 members of the South Africa Development Community, 12 members have recently launched a free trade zone.

Africa has thirty regional trade arrangements and each country belongs to an average of about four groups. From international waters, many goods, such as industrial items, enter duty free. When the item is not duty free the rates charged fall mostly between 5% and 25%. Goods which value does not exceed R400 are not liable for customs duty. Some goods, for example consumer goods being exported from South Africa will require an export permit, but this is not difficult to acquire and restrictions or limitations are minimal. There has been recent and exciting growth in the IT sector of Export or Import and South Africa is looking forward to a growing market of computer software and hardware for export and import. South Africa is a top exporter of the worlds pharmaceutical products with yearly exports reaching millions. South African Logistics assist in making the export business quick and cost effective. With our times being similar to Western Europe this makes for efficient business. South African is up to date on the latest export trends and stands strong alongside the rest of the globe.

There are a number of reasons as to why buying property in South Africa as an investment is becoming so popular: South Africa has been a prominent tourist destination for many years. Because South Africa occupies the topmost position as a holiday destination, this has boosted the real estate industry; the next important point that deserves mention as a pivotal factor in buying property in South Africa is the affordability of the real estate options.

The fact that the economy of the country is strong and stable means one can expect good returns on investments made in real estate; there is no VAT to be paid on the property that is purchased in South Africa nor is there any stamp duty; people who own property in South Africa are not liable to pay any inheritance tax either. As a result, buyers reap in many benefits when they own an investment property.

South Africa faces a shortage of housing facilities, and as a result, the government has placed this problem on its high priority list. The growth potential of the real estate market is therefore high and the returns are good. The South African real estate developers are being given tax breaks of up to 20%, and another 20% tax break on rental property is available for renovation projects. As a result the property market in South Africa has outperformed the western world. .

There are a number of steps before a property sale is completed, for example: finding a property in an area you’re happy with and actually looking at the property yourself; negotiating a price; signing a deed of sale – a deed of sale normally takes the form of a document titled ‘Offer to Purchase’; a five-day cooling-off period; paying the deposit; opening a bank account in South Africa. There are several other steps that haven’t been mentioned, and it is a wise investor who seeks professional advice to help them buy property in South Africa.

In conclusion, when buying property, South Africa not only offers a buoyant property investment market, but can offer property investors with year round summer temperatures, exciting wildlife and an affordable lifestyle.

The Reserve Bank’s credibility is at stake. The inflation numbers may be too dramatic for them to do nothing. This is further confirmed by Governor Mboweni’s prediction that the drop in value of the Rand will hold inflation above the usual for a longer time than expected. Since the central bank predicted that the interest rate would start dropping down within acceptable range after the first quarter of 2008 and we seem to be going in the opposite direction that is not helping the Reserve’s reputation or credibility. The main reason for the current food inflation is a high global demand for wheat products, which puts an upward bias on local food prices. Other factors include grains, biofuel production and the demand for protein feed. The increase in gasoline prices is largely due to increased demand from countries such as China and India and this is likely to continue. So what can the individual man or woman in South Africa do in order to survive these turbulent financial times? Well that is a broad question and there is no one quick fix. There are many smaller solutions. One would be foolish to expect the answer to fall from the sky or from the oil corporations or from the government. It is up to individual problem solving and grassroots movements of new technologies.

“US futures were quite weak the whole day on the back of Wachovia reporting credit losses.”

The JSE blue chip top-40 index closed 0.55 percent weaker at 28,054.25 points, and the broader All Share index shed 0.43 percent to 30,920.21 points.

Renewed worries about financial firms hit by the credit crunch rattled global markets after Wachovia – the fourth-largest US bank – said on Friday it expected increased loan losses in the fourth quarter.

After starting the session on a firm footing, the rand stumbled after banking shares dragged European stocks lower. It was trading at 6.6050 to the dollar at1515 GMT, more than one percent weaker than its New York close of 6.52.

“Things looked good for emerging markets earlier in the day, but we saw dollar/yen move lower and the bad news coming out of the UK banking sector all complicated things,” said an Johannesburg-based ABN Amro dealer.

Dealers said although the rand was holding the firmer side of 7/dollar convincingly, it could weaken to 6.70 overnight after US stocks opened in negative territory.

Selling Auction Items

Before starting an online auction business, you should understand your legal obligations. Carefully create “terms of sale” that explain what you expect from the buyer and what the buyer should expect from you. When describing items, be very descriptive. Include the condition of the item, any flaws in the product, and state whether it’s used, new, or reconditioned. Be sure to price the item high enough to cover your investment, and include an adequate amount for shipping.

Be very specific on shipping terms, your return policy, and any restocking fees. Also, always include photos with your items when possible. Auction items with photos tend to sell well. Once you’ve sold an item, be sure to ship it on time and give good customer service at all times.

If accepting payments through an online auction, choose a method that will enable you to sell around the world. Some payment options are only feasible in your particular country. Many third-party online merchant services offer international payment systems. Find the one that works for you and your customers. Remember, with online auctions, you might receive orders from anywhere… Egypt, South Africa, USA, Kenya, UK, India, Indonesia, Germany, Argentina, France, Brazil, Nigeria, or anywhere in Europe.

Buyer Auction Tips

Buying from online auctions can be a great way to get quality products at low prices. Some products you might find at an auction online include salvage items, real estate properties, cars, antiques, auto care products, computers, jewelry, electronics, books, clothing, and so forth. The possibilities are endless.

If you’re an auction buyer, observe the rules and terms of the auction online before placing bids. Keep up-to-date on auction news to become familiar with the latest trends. Make sure the item you are considering is what you’re really looking for. Check out the description, photos, guarantee or warranty, condition of the product, size, brand name, and so on. Also, consider shipping into your cost and from which country the item will be shipped. If you bid lower than retail, the shipping charges could make the product cost even more than the retail value. Some sellers will offer free shipping with high-ticket items.

Also, consider the seller’s return policy, payment methods, and their feedback rating (if available). If no feedback is available, it’s up to you to determine if you want to give the new seller a try or not.

Be Safe as an Online Auction Bidder

Protect your personal information. Never give the seller more information than is needed. Your social security number, bank account information, or personal login information to the bidding site or any other site should never be solicited. If the seller tries to obtain this information from you, turn them in to the bidding site for investigation.

With these tips in mind, you can successfully start an online auction business or become a smart auction bidder. The opportunity for global auction business has never been greater than it is right now!